courtesy Statoil

An ice-class floating production, storage and offloading vessel, or FPSO, appears to be frontrunner in oil company ENI’s search for a solution at the Goliat oilfield in the Barents Sea, OilGas24 sources have revealed.

“(ENI) built the world’s first FPSO, the Firenze, decades ago, and there’s no shortage of turreted loading solutions,” the source said, adding “the Norwegians have consulted on FPSO process technology of late”.

ENI is an oilfield just off northern Norway said to hold between 250 million and 700 million barrels of oil.

“ENI is extremely experienced in this field, and may not have to look for FPSO help,”

Sources in Hammerfest confirmed that of the 10 solutions that made ENI’s brainstorming list of project options, nine involved seaborne solutions or platform designs, a count reflected in the Snoehvit and floating process suppliers ENI gathered in a local hotel.

Engineers are understood to have balked at the energy needed to get the 33 API oil, unprocessed to a shore terminal 80 kilometres away where it won’t be needed and no market exists. Power onshore is also in short supply at these high latitudes.

Greens in Norway's left-of-centre coalition government have vowed to fight a pipeline to shore. Politicians and northerners have lobbied for a pipeline and terminal solution in the name of jobs and development.

The FPSO would need winterized process plant and thicker hulls capable of withstanding the extra weight of ice. Shipbuilding material would have to be the finest. According to our expert, the Navion fleet of Norne-type FPSOs were “built to a higher class.” Norne is the northernmost anchored FPSO in the world at its Norwegian Sea location.

In addition, two mini-FPSOs of 250,000 barrels were possible options, the source said, or one ship of twice the storage or more. Norwegian and ENI ship-brokering also means the vessel’s “re-deployability” will likely not pose a problem, not with the creation of no less than four new floating production companies over the past 18 months.

“ENI is extremely experienced in this field, and may not have to look for FPSO help,” the source said.

A Norne-type FPSO would cost slightly more than 120 km of pipeline (according to one study, and before pipe trenching, burial and terminal construction).

Contrary to belief, Barents Sea waves never show the strength felt at Gullfaks in the North Sea, where they’re measured. The North Sea is ripe with FPSOs.

Longitudinally stiffened hulls, heated rails, 12-point-spread, flexible mooring, and weather-vaning in 30-metre waves are among the features a Goliat floater are said to need.

ws@oilgas24.com